As April 14, 2012 draws near, it is interesting to note how the various nominees have shifted their campaign into top gear to ensure they walk away with honours at the 13th edition of the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards Festival.

Come Saturday March 17, 2012, all roads lead to the Jubilee Park in the twin city Sekondi-Takoradi, where a select string of nominated artistes will be rocking music lovers and their teeming fans in and around the Oil City to a grand jam.

To mount the stage on the night will include Kwaw Kesse, Ruff n Smooth, D Cryme, Selina Boateng and Stay Jay. Other artistes to thrill the audience on the night are Gifty Ossei, Trigmatic and Raquel, among a host of other exceptional performers.

The Takoradi concert is absolutely free and expected to attract thousands of music lovers. It is the first of a series of nominee jams and parties to be held around the country. The nominees jam affords organizers the opportunity to involve a greater part of the country in the VGMA festival.

However, voting for the public categories is in progress. The general public vote at the VGMA goes a long way to decide who wins what in the year as the scheme maintains the 3-tier voting system that involves the general public, the VGMA board and the VGMA Academy.

For the public awards, the general public makes 40% of the decision, the VGMA Academy 30% while the VGMA board has 30% vote. For the non-public awards, the VGMA Academy makes 50% of the decision while the VGMA board makes the remaining 50% of the decision of who wins what.

For the Honorary Awards, the VGMA Board decides 100% who wins what while for the Sound Engineer, Music Video and Producer of the Year, the decision will be split between the VGMA board and peer voting.

To vote for Artiste of the Year, all one has to do is text A to the short code 1767 on Vodafone and all other networks and follow the voice prompts. For Vodafone Song of the Year one has to text B to the short code 1767 and for all other categories, text C also to 1767and follow prompts.

The public categories consist of Artiste Of the Year, Most Popular Song, Best New Artiste, Hiphop Song, Hiplife Song, Hiplife/Hiphop Artiste, Gospel Song, Gospel Artiste, Highlife Song, Highlife Artiste, Afro-Pop Song, Reggae Song, Best Collaboration, Group of the Year and African Artiste of the Year.